In today's paper there was a report of a 21 yr.old male from N.J. who died yesterday at Killington. According to the witnesses he was skiing at a high rate of speed, lost control, and skied off the trail into several trees. He was conscious and able to respond after the crash but lost consciousness and didn't recover. He was pronounced dead in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Our thoughts & prayers go out to his family for the lost of such a young life! Lets hope this is the last death from skiing this year!

I think that I saw that when I was skiing at Killington yesterday. I was riding up the Skye Peak Quad when I saw an accident with a skier down in the trees right off of Great Eastern. Ski Patrol was there, but the position that the guy was in looked pretty grim. A little later that day I saw DART land in the Snowshed parking lot, so I'm assuming that that's the same guy.

__________Fall Linen. Imaginary line following the most direct path down a slope that skiers continuously traverse on a run, often stopping at other invisible slope features along the way like the Tumble Lane, the Stagger Path and the Topple Zone.

They don't keep accurate stats on collisions at k in that many aren't reported. They do keep track of visits to their first aid stations, I imagine. However, most fatalities in snow descent sports result from collisions between people and man-made objects like grooming machinery or lift towers. I thought this type of accident rather remarkable for that reason alone. Usually there are only about a half dozen fatalities in the whole of New England in snow or ice ascent and descent sports a year. So, there are a lot of accidents at Killington, they aren't reported accurately and one fatality every three years is a rather high rate.

I guess my high school has been really unlucky but we've had 3 fatalities in 15 years, 1 on ski club and 2 on the ski team. The ski club fatality was at Shawnee mountain about 6 years ago - student skiing alone down a closed trail hit a tree and wasn't found for a long time since they weren't looking on that trail. (Shawnee Mountain Pennsylvania). Earlier we had 2 deaths on the ski team before they canceled it, one crossing the street in front of Great Gorge and hit by a car on the way to practice, and one falling out of the lift at Great Gorge and dieing on impact. I always though it was around 1 per mountain per year or more, it surprises me that Kmart has fewer than that.

The ski club fatality was at Shawnee mountain about 6 years ago - student skiing alone down a closed trail hit a tree and wasn't found for a long time since they weren't looking on that trail. (Shawnee Mountain Pennsylvania).

I know this will bring up a debate but this is an example why you don't ski on closed trails! Patroller don't sweep (ie. check) closed trails at the end of the day/night. The possiblity of being left there hurt is very real. As for keeping record of collisions, all patrols keep records of every accident they handle. Also, collisions aren't limited to other people,snowmaking equipment, & lift towers they include trees and other natural objects. In fact, most of your deaths are from natural objects than people or equipment.

Fortunately this guy ended up in a place where many people could see him, if not hear him calling for Help if he had too. I could see him clearly from the Skye Peak lift when I rode it up over Great Eastern. You couldn't really see him from Great Eastern itself very well, but going down Skyeburst I wouldn't be surprised that he would have been seen without issue.

__________Fall Linen. Imaginary line following the most direct path down a slope that skiers continuously traverse on a run, often stopping at other invisible slope features along the way like the Tumble Lane, the Stagger Path and the Topple Zone.

I also feel that this acident is very tragic. I am amazed that this does not happen more often ! Good point about ducking ropes as well. this also makes me think about the use of I Pods, ect. don't use them! You are putting yourself other innocent people in danger!

[quote]this also makes me think about the use of I Pods, ect. don't use them! You are putting yourself other innocent people in danger!

Totally untrue... I use one all the time..

I also ski with someone who's deaf.... Maybe she shouldn't ski... [/quote]

It is dangerous - same reason cops will pull you over if you're driving with headphones on. With a person who is deaf or has a hearing problem, you will notice that they use their other senses to their advantage - in terms of skiing you'll observe more visual use, etc. A snowboarder zipping down the slopes blasting Phil Collins on their iPod is in a different world and more likely to cause serious damage to themselves or someone else. Of course, if everyone else is observing the code, what's in front of you is in theory the only issue, but nonetheless hearing someone yell "look out!" will help you get out of their way, etc.